[2] 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 Windows' kernel, with most of the program written in assembly language.

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.