Don't forget about Roland. I have a Roland XP-30 and can't say enough good about it. It's got a kazillion sounds, plenty of flexibility, it's expandable, and it's designed specifically for either playing live or connecting to a computer via MIDI for external sequencing - it's got no internal sequencing crap, so Roland took that out and replaced it with more sound performance and extra expansion cards.
I'm not sure what you mean by "tight budget" though. To me, a "cheap" keyboard would be in the $750-$1000 range (considering there are keyboards out there WAY more expensive than that)... assuming we're talking about one that'll be used for serious band stuff... recording, live performances, etc.
The XP-30 is a few years old now, replaced by some newer model I'm sure (I really have no idea what model would have replaced it). It was around $1200 new, and you can probably find one on eBay now for around the $500 range pretty easily. If you wanna hear what it can do, check out
this song, and
this song. Well, and
this song too, though it's not nearly as well done as the first two. The XP-30 is doing all keys, the drums and the bass guitar on all those songs... sequenced on the computer using SONAR 3.
So bottom line I guess I'm trying to say is don't forget Roland. And also, if you're using this keyboard strictly for live performance or for sequencing with a computer, then make sure you get one that doesn't have its own built-in sequencer. It wouldn't hurt anything, mind you, but why pay for something you won't use? And usually when they take out the sequencer, they give you other features in its place, making it a better "bang for the buck".
