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Beginner looking for a good MIDI keyboard/synth?

I'm a beginner to keyboard and everything, and I was wondering what a decent, cheap keyboard would be for me. I play piano fairly well, but I've noticed from listening to keyboard (Richard Barbieri is my favorite) that it's completely different from piano. I have a really cheap keyboard from GC that I mess around on, but I'd like to get something that I could run through my laptop and also use with LMMS. I mainly like more ambient stuff if that makes any difference. I was looking on musiciansfriend and I saw that there are synthesizers and MIDI keyboards in separate sections, so I also wanted to know if someone could clarify what the major differences are between the two. This is just a guess, but from the little I've read it seems like synthesizers are more for designing your own sounds on the keyboard itself, and MIDI is more for playing through software on a computer. I've also been listening to some breakcore and dubstep lately, and I was wondering how prominent keyboard use is in that and what exactly kind of control board I would need for adjusting effects and stuff on LMMS?

tld;r What's the difference between a MIDI keyboard and synthesizer, and what would you suggest for a beginner?