OCR04913 - *YES* Hollow Knight "A Path" *PROJECT*

[Emunator ⚖️]

Hello judges, it's been a while! I hope everyone's doing great! ^^

I have been cooking a small Hollow Knight album for a while now, and it's finally nearing completion! This is my first submission for it, but you can expect a few more!

This whole project initially started as just a single short lo-fi-ish remix just to mess around, about two years ago I think. And just as it so often does, it spiraled almost out of control in the classic loop of "just a little more", until it became the 4-track EP that it is now! This will be the third track on the album, but was the first track that I worked on and which sparked the whole thing.

Hollow Knight holds a very special place in my heart, because playing that game was a very crucial moment in my recovery from pretty severe depression. Working in a big game company had been siphoning out my passion for a while, and Hollow Knight was the game that reminded me why I was doing what I was doing. I will forever be grateful to Team Cherry for essentially saving my life! ?

Now, enough with the heavy stuff. For this track, I wanted to make something that would be easy to listen while still retaining the same sense of mystery from the original, and that would be a good lead-up to the album's final track, which is City of Tears. So basically, a strange blend of "comfortable" and "uncomfortable".

Also, there's one very specific thing about the track that I'm expecting to be divisive on the judges, and that's how I produced the bass drums. I made the very deliberate decision of having them more subdued than is usual for a track of this style, because I thought having it be too present or too punchy would have been detrimental to the track's creative vision. I hope you won't mind too much! :)

As usual, thank you very much for your time! Cheers!

[prophetik music ⚖️]

thank you for the writeup.

opens with some filtered piano and crackles. the shuffle starts at 0:22 and brings in some synths and some neat distortion effects. there's a wobble synth that's the melodic material at 0:57, and i like the space that you give that synth to breathe. the additional elements brought in at 1:13 are really nice as well - the countermelodic synth in particular is a nice settling saw tone. there's some fun work in the bass expanding the earlier ascending three-note motif after that which is also cool.

there's a shift in feel at 1:49. i'm continuing to like the playing with time which isn't super common in this style, and the 8-bit-esque synth work is also neat too. there's some vibes work at 2:26 that's also a neat shift, again mixing up what could have been a recap section. call and response at 2:45 is also well handled and interesting. 

3:19 has the piano not quanted in the same groove as the drums which is a little distracting. this section plays through a bit until we get to a dropoff where it's just the piano doing its thing to finish it off.

this is a really clever adaptation of a beautiful original. i like the shuffle throughout and the ways you continue to play with time and the ascending three-note motif that you define early on in the piece. i think your choices around mixing are also successful as the different elements really come together into a complete picture without anything sticking out. excellent work.

 

 

YES

[MindWanderer]

Starts off, interestingly, as Greenpath but in the style of City of Tears. Then gets into more jazzy stuff with theremin. Very unique. It does get pretty meandering after the halfway point, but as it's jazz-inspired, it makes total sense. So so the subdued drums; jazz performers often feather their kicks even more lightly than this. I think the crackle is a little louder than it strictly needs to be, but that's my only criticism. Nice job.

YES

 

[Hemophiliac ⚖️]

When this started I expected it to stay really close to the original because of the close adaption at first.  But then we get the bass and drums at 0:22 and wow was that a surprising change of genre. There's so much warmth in the bass that it fills the space wonderfully but at the same time keeps the piece sparse. Doubling the bass with the piano later on actually gave a timbral change that I didn't expect and is a great subtle way to add some variation.

The 6/8 groove is quite lovely, and the percussion sits perfectly in the mix and shares the space with all of the other elements.  It sets "A Path" that the other parts get to walk on.

If I had to nitpick, the attack on the synth that comes in at 0:58 is long enough that it feels a little behind for a moment. But it comes back around shortly after, and that's not a big deal at all.

I could listen to this on loop for a while, perfect meditation music; very enjoyable.

YES

Edited May 10, 2024 by Hemophiliac

[Chimpazilla ⚖️]

I'm pretty sure the original and remix are in 6/4, not 6/8, just to be super pedantic!  6/4 is a very unique time signature.

Opens very conservatively, nice lo-fi filtering.  The warbley leads that make their way into the soundscape are really cool, followed by a more bouncey, shuffled bass doubling the piano at 1:33.  The soundscape stays relatively simple and uncrowded, but feels super sophisticated.  There's a jazzy flavor, I hear vibraphone, piano, jazzy drums, some chippy synths.  This is a delightful, varied yet cohesive mixture of sounds.

The arrangement is fairly straightforward but keeps things fresh with varied sounds and groove patterns.  Truly awesome work, love it.

YES