Not necessarily the cheapest possible options, but cheap enough and fairly quick to get going: If you want a MIDI pad controller, the Korg nanoPAD 2 [1] is $65

Not necessarily the cheapest possible options, but cheap enough and fairly quick to get going: If you want a MIDI pad controller, the Korg nanoPAD 2 [1] is $65 new (and often pops up used) and powered entirely off USB. You can then set up Sitala [2] to listen for notes from the pad and drag-and-drop samples onto each note. If you want keyboard-style keys, the Pimoroni Keybow kit [2] is $57 - there is a bit of assembly, but no soldering. [1] https://www.korg.com/us/products/computergear/nanopad2/ https://www.korg.com/us/products/computergear/nanopad2/ [2] https://decomposer.de/sitala/ https://decomposer.de/sitala/ [2] https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/keybow-2040 https://shop.pimoroni.com/products/keybow-2040