Streamer Dr. Doot 100%-Clears Hollow Knight: Silksong Using an Electric Saxophone
Dr. Doot — a streamer and musician with three music degrees including a doctorate in music composition — has finished Hollow Knight: Silksong on the electric saxophone and reached 100% completion. He’s been using an electronic wind instrument and custom software to translate his playing into game inputs for years, and this is his latest full-game achievement.
- How the sax controls work
- Technical and game challenges
- Other sax runs and background
- Favorites and next steps
About Dr. Doot
Dr. Doot streams on YouTube and Twitch and has been doing unusual controller challenges for years. Early in the COVID quarantines he started playing an electric saxophone and moved that instrument into his streams. He has three music degrees, including a doctorate in music composition.
https://www.youtube.com/@drdootphd
The Silksong run
He completed Hollow Knight: Silksong using an electric saxophone, and reached 100% completion. According to his account, the early stages were rough: he spent hours on Hunter’s March and struggled to beat Savage Beastfly with minimal upgrades. Ultimately, he finished Hornet’s journey and the full game.
How the sax controls work
Dr. Doot uses an “electronic wind instrument with the same key layout as a saxophone.” For movement he uses a thumbstick-like “mod wheel” on the back of the instrument, and he runs Bome MIDI Translator software to convert MIDI signals into mouse and keyboard inputs. At first, he says the setup “would let you play games by playing notes on the instrument.”
Technical and game challenges
The system is precise, which creates both advantages and issues. As he put it, the software “knows *exactly* how sloppy my playing is,” so a missed note can mean trouble in tight situations. Still, he noted that “it’s shocking how little latency there is between the aerophone and the game, which is what allows me to do all the things that other challenge runners can do with a normal controller.”
On the downside, he deals with “false or missed inputs.” The instrument’s air-pressure sensor is sensitive, and “moderately loud sounds (like laughing/yelling/talking/etc) can actually trigger the mechanism and play notes without my mouth actually on the instrument.” Those false inputs have caused him to “accidentally fall off of a cliff or attack an NPC on accident.”
He also warned that running other programs alongside Bome MIDI Translator can make it “temperamental,” which interferes with inputs while playing. Beyond the tech, his main challenge is the same as any deep challenge run: learning the game at a very detailed level.
SILKSONG ON A SAX IS 100% COMPLETE!!! pic.twitter.com/4TmMhSuVUw
— Dr. Doot 🎷 (@DrDootPhD) September 30, 2025
Other sax runs and background
Dr. Doot first tested the idea on titles like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Cuphead, then went on to an All Bosses playthrough of Dark Souls 3 as his first major sax-controlled challenge. He has also taken on Dark Souls 2, Elden Ring, and did no-hit runs for Dark Souls 2 and Dark Souls 3. He had been attempting a no-hit run of the first game in the trilogy before Silksong released, and plans to return to it now that Hornet’s journey is complete.
Among his toughest sax challenges, he singled out Lies of P. He also described “Sax Solo Nightreign runs were super exhausting.”
Favorites and next steps
Despite the many runs, his favorite game so far this year is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which he called an “absolute masterpiece.” However, he noted that its control scheme doesn’t suit the sax: it would be “kind of a drag to doot.”
For now, Dr. Doot says he’ll return to earlier Souls runs and keep experimenting. He continues to stream and show how musical performance can interface with games in unexpected ways.
