musician's guide

This starts what is almost certainly the biggest chapter (all puns intended) in my life. About a year after I moved to Seattle, I started to write a booklet called “A Musician’s Guide to the Recording Studio”. Sounds logical, right? Except this was 1982 and about 12 years before anyone was writing books with this title … it was short, but it was WAY ahead of its time (something that I’m rather prone to doing).

Before Christmas, my US family called and said “you’re coming home for Christmas!” … I kept saying, no, but they just wouldn’t take that for an answer. So, I went back to Indiana for the Holidays. I wanted to call a major (the biggest) publisher in the music tech industry (at that time, they had the name of Howard Sams), to ask if they’d be interested in the book. So I called 2 days before Christmas and got the acquisitions editor on the phone. I said, I have this booklet, would you be interested in publishing it? They immediately said No, but that they had this book called Modern Recording Techniques (which was even at that time, the world standard book). They said the original author had quit the industry, and that they needed a new author and that they needed to make a decision THAT DAY! Mr. Huber, could you do it? … Well, after picking myself up off the floor in shock, I said YES! I’d spent practically my entire life preparing for that and I was indeed able to do it. I totally knew at the time that they were handing me an entirely new life … and multiple decades later, I’m still the author of what is the industry’s standard text. What an amazing opportunity and a really fun ride! The funny part is that about 40 years later, I should be totally tired of it, but the truth is that I’m still having a blast writing, drawing figures and putting my best foot forward for the industry. How many people get to teach and introduce hundreds of thousands of interested recording people to this industry … That’s the real blessing!