Salter gained his education from the Vienna Academy of Music and studied composition with Alban Berg, Franz Schreker, and others.
He worked for the Berlin State Opera before being hired in 1928 to compose music at UFA studios.
Salter emigrated to America in 1937 and was quickly put under contract at Universal, where he worked for nearly 30 years, arranging, composing, conducting, and serving as music director.
Notable non-horror scores include the Western Bend of the River (1953) and the swashbucklers Against All Flags (1952) and The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), Universal's first Cinemascope production.
Salter died in Studio City, California on July 23, 1994, at the age of 98, and was interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.