I've been in the process of forming a new band, and I'm trying to come up with a quick method of figuring out the
STC rating of walls in potential studios, because it'd be handy to know when we get to recording. From what I've read online so far, the only real way to know an STC rating is in lab testing... that obviously won't work for me, lol. So I'm trying to devise a "poor man's STC rating," and wanted to see if you think this might work, or would be completely inaccurate.
In case you don't feel like reading that wiki article, the STC (sound transmission class) rating is, quite simply, a number that represents how well a wall, window, door, etc. can kill noise. The math is fairly complicated, but basically, the STC rating is figured out by figuring out how many decibels are "killed" passing through something. For instance, if a noise is 80 dB on one side of a wall and 50 db on the other side, the STC rating of that wall is 30.
Seems simple enough, right? I mean really, all I should have to do is buy an
SPF Meter, crank up a guitar amp, and strum away on the same exact note while someone holds the SPF meter, say, a foot from the inside wall, then a foot from the outside wall, and subtract... right? I don't need a dead-accurate STC rating, just a basic idea of what it might be so I know how much soundproofing needs to be done. This seemed like the most logical way of doing this, but I figured I'd ask first to see if you guys had better ideas.
