Sound transmission class
STC = Sound Transmission Class
This single number rating applies to the frequency range from 125Hz to 4kHz. A higher STC rating is desired especially for keeping your sound inside and the neighbors noise, outside!
These ratings are used for all wall assemblies and give the person developing a wall for a high rated STC, an understanding of what building materials and building methods have to be used to achieve a specific STC rating.
The average difference between the sound level(in decibels) on one side of a wall panel and the sound level on the opposite side of the same panel determines the final rating of the field STC.
What is an acceptable STC rating for your walls? There is no one simple answer. Your surrounding external noise levels, interior noise levels including at what level you and your musical equipment will be playing at determine the actually number you require by law, first, and isolation requirements, second.
STC: The ability of a material or wall assembly to stop noise from transmitting through it.
Acoustical glazing – Glass STC rating
(IR-761.pdf)Gypsum Board Walls and STC ratings
Sound transmission class From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nrc Cac Stc and ABC of Acoustics
WHAT is the difference between NRC, CAC and STC and what are the ABC’s of acoustics?
STC rating is the much ballyhooed acronym for sound transmission class that sticks in your vocabulary early on in the acoustics education.
Frequency Spectrum of Musical Instruments
You find that STC has to do with the frequency range from 125 to 4000 Hz which winds up being the range of the human voice…give or take a few Hertz. Stc has been used as reference for walls, but each of us has used this as a measurement for any panel, wall, ceiling and floors. It works, so we use it.
While this is trendy to use STC, it does not help much in a musical environment since the frequency range can go from a low of 20 Hz to a high of 20kHz!
So a better descriptor would be “TL” or transmission loss:
“Transmission Loss is a measurement of a partition’s ability to block sound at a given frequency, or the number of decibels that sound of a given frequency is reduced in passing through a partition. Measuring Transmission Loss over a range of 16 different frequencies between 125-4000 Hz, is the basis for determining a partitions Sound Transmission Class. ”
NRC or noise reduction coefficient is a tad different. This is the measure that a material has to absorb sound. How good it does is rated with a NRC rating. 1.0 is about as good as an NRC can get.
CAC, or ceiling attenuation class, is the measurement for the performance of a ceiling. Obviously, if you were paying attention, the higher a CAC rating, the better.
That leaves us with the ABC’s. Right. Well, it may not be a direct requirement for recording studio construction diy’ers but it never hurts to be able to pop it into conversation at the grand opening of the local Piggly-Wiggly. Never know who is paying attention these days.
A=absorb
B=blocking
C=covering sound
