Lesson plan
SAWStudio
SAWStudio is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by RML Labs. It is the latest incarnation in the SAW line of software. SAW is the acronym for Software Audio Workshop. SAW was one of the first DAW products available for Microsoft Windows at a time when Pro Tools for the Apple Macintosh computer had virtually 100% industry market share. SAW's lower price appealed to budget-minded professionals, and SAW quickly found use in production and post-production studios. It was especially popular in the television industry in the early 1990s, often being packaged with a DAL CardD+ sound card and a Music Quest MXQ-32 MIDI interface for a turnkey, SMPTE-syncable 'CD quality' (16bit, 44.1 kHz sampling rate, full-duplex) system. SAW is unique among DAWs in that its engine bypasses much of the Windows kernel, with most of the program written in assembly language. This produces code that, even though maintained as a full-featured DAW, results in an executable file that is less than 2 megabytes in size, with its graphics DLL file accounts for most of the program's size. SAW retains a cult following and its user interface is praised by its userbase, but criticized by others, which has limited the software's ability to penetrate what has become a highly competitive market. Proponents of SAW extol its speed and reliability (infrequent crashing) in particular.
Article summary
SAWStudio is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by RML Labs. It is the latest incarnation in the SAW line of software. SAW is the acronym for Software Audio Workshop. SAW was one of the first DAW products available for Microsoft Windows at a time when Pro Tools for the Apple Macintosh computer had virtually 100% industry market share. SAW's lower price appealed to budget-minded professionals, and SAW quickly found use in production and post-production studios. It was especially popular in the television industry in the early 1990s, often being packaged with a DAL CardD+ sound card and a Music Quest MXQ-32 MIDI interface for a turnkey, SMPTE-syncable 'CD quality' (16bit, 44.1 kHz sampling rate, full-duplex) system. SAW is unique among DAWs in that its engine bypasses much of the Windows kernel, with most of the program written in assembly language. This produces code that, even though maintained as a full-featured DAW, results in an executable file that is less than 2 megabytes in size, with its graphics DLL file accounts for most of the program's size. SAW retains a cult following and its user interface is praised by its userbase, but criticized by others, which has limited the software's ability to penetrate what has become a highly competitive market. Proponents of SAW extol its speed and reliability (infrequent crashing) in particular.
Key claims
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Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
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Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.