# ThinkSpace courses ... again



## borisb2 (Jun 16, 2021)

With all these recent discussions about Berklee I had a look at Thinkspace again, specifically their short courses. Back in the day I bought the Composer Blueprint training (as well as some other short courses). Now looking at their Music for the Media (MftM) course, how similar is that to CBT?

I’m looking also at the Cinematic Orchestration course but that seems to be discontinued. Can anybody still recommend that course? From a composing standpoint? (there are some modules about writing for orchestra/arranging)..


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## Lassi Tani (Jun 16, 2021)

borisb2 said:


> With all these recent discussions about Berklee I had a look at Thinkspace again, specifically their short courses. Back in the day I bought the Composer Blueprint training (as well as some other short courses). Now looking at their Music for the Media (MftM) course, how similar is that to CBT?
> 
> I’m looking also at the Cinematic Orchestration course but that seems to be discontinued. Can anybody still recommend that course? From a composing standpoint? (there are some modules about writing for orchestra/arranging)..


I've taken the Composer Blueprint, Mixing course, Cinematic Orchestration, and started the MftM course. MftM is quite different from the Blueprint course. Blueprints course is about writing genre music, and Guy teaches about all the usual elements found in each genre, such as Action, Fantasy, Heroic etc. MftM is a longer course about writing music to different media, like TV, Films and Games with a LOT of video materials and assignments. The course is created from real examples and briefs that Thinkspace staff has got over the years.

I think Cinematic Orchestration is still there:





Cinematic Orchestration | ThinkSpace Education


Learn how to orchestrate for film, television or games using either samples or live players, taught by top Hollywood composers and orchestrators.




thinkspaceeducation.com





I can fully recommend it. It's a bit older course, but still relevant and well structured. Basically, you'll go through all the different instruments, sections, and the whole orchestra and how to score for each of them. The videos of different composers and orchestrators are especially great, as you'll see how they would orchestrate a piano sketch for a section of an orchestra or for the whole orchestra.


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## borisb2 (Jun 16, 2021)

Thats great to hear - thanks! I will have a closer look again at the MftM course


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## KassBot (Jun 16, 2021)

I'm interested in the cinematic orchestration course. I'm currently taking a course in composing music for video games and have learned a bit about orchestration and arranging through that and good old youtube. But this course would be great for me to keep myself going over the summer and so I'm curious how advanced this course is? If it's a complete beginners guide or if it's more in depth?


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## borisb2 (Jun 16, 2021)

KassBot said:


> If it's a complete beginners guide or if it's more in depth?


Both I would say.. There was a free demo for the orchestration course


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## KassBot (Jun 16, 2021)

borisb2 said:


> Both I would say.. There was a free demo for the orchestration course


Oh there was? Is it still available?


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## allen-garvey (Jun 16, 2021)

KassBot said:


> Oh there was? Is it still available?


For all the short courses except for How to Write Music and Learn Music Theory there are free demos for the first course module. When you go to the course page you can see it halfway down the page.


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## KassBot (Jun 16, 2021)

Oh that's great! I'll look into that. Thank you!


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## Lassi Tani (Jun 16, 2021)

borisb2 said:


> Thats great to hear - thanks! I will have a closer look again at the MftM course


You're welcome!


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## Delboy (Dec 3, 2021)

How often do Thinkspace have sales like the current 30% which finishes today
Do they ever give bigger discounts - like 50% ?
Is there a time limit to ownership for viewing ?


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## Markrs (Dec 3, 2021)

Delboy said:


> How often do Thinkspace have sales like the current 30% which finishes today
> Do they ever give bigger discounts - like 50% ?
> Is there a time limit to ownership for viewing ?


They have sales a few times a year and will certainly have one at xmas/new year in my view.

They did a one-day Cyber Monday 40% off, but I don't know of them doing a deeper discount than that. If you demo the courses, they then send you a discount that you can use on top of the current one as well. The discount codes are universal, so I have put them below (I think you have seen these in the other post I made, but I have added them here in case others missed it).

Extra discount code, that can be used with the current discount:

Sound Design Pro 20% off: *sdp20*
Music For The Media 20% off: *mftm20*
How To Write Music 30% off: *getstarted*
Learn Music Theory 30% off: *getstarted*
Composer Blueprints Training 30% off:* composing*
Cinematic Orchestration 30% off:* composing*
How To Score Films 30% off:* composing*
Harmony One or Two 30% off:* composing*
How To Score Films 20% off: *htsf20*
Orchestral Mixing With Jake Jackson 20% off:* om20*


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## PaulieDC (Dec 3, 2021)

Delboy said:


> How often do Thinkspace have sales like the current 30% which finishes today
> Do they ever give bigger discounts - like 50% ?
> Is there a time limit to ownership for viewing ?


No limit, I have several courses and they are “own it for life” or whenever someone comes along and pulls the content off the web server, whichever comes first.


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## Delboy (Dec 3, 2021)

Brill - thks for this and the codes


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## Delboy (Dec 3, 2021)

Its 19:00 UK time and went to check a possible purchase and they have already closed the 30% down ... yet it is still the 3rd December. Not a good first impression


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## GtrString (Dec 4, 2021)

They dont have sales often, and these are as good as it gets, so I would jump on it asap. These are unrivalled, top tier courses, imo.


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## Delboy (Dec 4, 2021)

But they closed their deal 5 hours early GtrString so they missed out - maybe not so much me.


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## Delboy (Dec 23, 2021)

They are back on sale again if anyone interested - happy Xmas


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## cleverr1 (Dec 26, 2021)

Cool thread - thanks Guys!
I've just finished "How to Score Films" and using the current sale and discount codes I've just signed up for "Music for the Media" and "Composer Blueprint Training" and got some great deals.


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## ALittleNightMusic (Dec 26, 2021)

I recently bought and watched the Jake Jackson mix course. It was ok - pretty basic stuff honestly. I think the Beat Kauffman mix course is the best one I've seen for orchestral material.


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## wst3 (Dec 27, 2021)

As mentioned previously, I found the Blueprints course to be an amazing value. It was my first dip of the toe into Thinkspace, and it got me hooked.

During the sale I picked up the two harmony courses and the working composer course. For reasons I can't explain I started with working composer and it is really well done. Nothing really about composing or mixing or any of the really fun stuff, but a ton (so far) about the business end of things. I am finding it fascinating.

I also have several others:
Learn Music Theory - I should have watched the demo, this one was decent as a refresher, but I could have skipped it.
How To Write Music - there is something in here, I'm sure, but it escaped me the first time around. I will be revisiting!
How To Score Films - This was fun, and I did learn some new tricks.

Template In A Weekend & Sampled Orchestration In A Weekend - these come in tied for second for me, both are ridiculously well done, the only thing is the "weekend" might be a bit optimistic, but that's ok. I will continue to go through them until I have extracted every bit of knowledge there!

Just my thoughts...


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