The Ultimate ATC Chatter

Introduction

Stick and Rudder Studios have been known for their X-Camera plugin for X-Plane and X-ATC Chatter for several years. In consultation with Mark Ellis, lead developer of these X-Plane plugins—and many more products—I, your reporter Angelique van Campen, decided to write a review of X-ATC Chatter. But let me first start with “what is X-ATC Chatter” for a product.

X-ATC Chatter
According to the dedicated Stick and Rudder Studios, “X-ATC_Chatter is a collaboration with LiveATC.net that brings over 45,000 high-quality ATC audio clips to the flight simulation community. It is a collection of audio files curated from the LiveATC.net archives and designed to support the controller chatter playback capability in Pilot2ATC.”

“The product also includes a stand-alone X-Plane 11 and 12 player for people who don’t use Pilot2ATC. The stand-alone player integrates with X-Life version 4.3 (https://main.jardesign.org/xlf.html) from JARDesign, 124thATC version 2.x from Antonello Matacchieri, and the Laminar Research X-Plane 11.3 and above ATC system.”

“The stand-alone player includes an optional Simple ATC feature that uses SAPI-5 voices on Windows for a more immersive experience. Simple ATC supports VFR, VFR with flight-following, and IFR flight plans. It also supports SIDS, STARS, and vectors to the final approach.”

This is just an extract of much more information about X-ATC Chatter, which can be found at this link, including some videos about the product’s functionality and operation.

A couple of notes from your reviewer: First, since Angelique uses X-Plane on Mac, Pilot2ATC is not an option for her. This is because Pilot2ATC is only available for Windows-based PCs. Secondly, X-Life and 124thATC offer the same features: AI traffic control and emulating ATC. To be clear, these programs don’t emulate ATC chatter like X-ATC Chatter does! The review is based on version 1.7.2. As of this writing, March/April 2025, there is also a beta version 1.7.3, but I will leave that out for now.

It is up to Angelique to decide how and where to start reviewing the X-ATC Chatter plugin. Mark from Stick and Rudder Studios has already explained how to install it and all the product features in a comprehensive YouTube movie. Mark describes the installation process, the different popup windows, and how to use X-ATC Chatter. For your convenience, here is the link to the YouTube movie “youtu.be/R5AXcIBTWUc.” Add https:// to the link, and you’ll be guided to the movie.

Although the movie is recorded with X-Plane 11, it is also valid for X-Plane 12 with most likely new features since it discusses version 1.7. As said before, a beta version – 1.7.3 – is also available, and it has, according to Mark, “better support for Text to Speech voices if you plan to use the SimpleATC feature of X-ATC-Chatter.”

My X-ATC Chatter Experience

As said in the previous section, I need to find a way to express my experience for myself and all our readers. I start with a simple example: a typical flight from LPPT to Brazil. I took that flight while reviewing the ToLiss Airbus A330-900.

During this transatlantic flight, I was busy exploring and writing about the behaviour of the ToLiss A330-900 in all its aspects, but I noticed it was very quiet. Perhaps at that moment, it was the perfect condition to focus entirely on the ToLiss product. Still, I missed the ATC communication and started getting bored due to the silence.

My first experience after I installed X-ATC Chatter during this second flight I performed was, “Wow, I am not alone anymore. ” I knew that the ATC I heard didn’t reflect all the other aircraft around me, nor was it a real ATC used at that moment in the air.

Keep this in mind when you buy X-ATC Chatter. X-ATC Chatter is a collection of pre-recorded ATC phrases. Besides that, it depends on where you are flying and if an X-ATC Chatter file is available. Now is a good moment to explain the “stand-alone” version of the X-ATC Chatter plugin on my flight.

A whole flight with ATC-X Chatter
Don’t worry; typically, this will be a long flight from LPPT to Brazil, but I used the SITUATIONS save option in the ToLiss A330-900 and can position myself at FL380 as I approach mainland Brazil. I decided to start at LPPT gate 144.

But first, let me quickly show you which or what settings from X-ATC Chatter I used. As you can see in the first screenshot, I ticked only these two items as suggested by the movie from Mark Ellis. The Audio and Appearance tabs are set, as seen in Mark’s YouTube movie.

Knowing my settings, the second screenshot shows you the chatter control panel and, conveniently, the nearest facilities. Since I used the translucent version of the control panel, I can click the white DOWN arrow in the left-hand upper corner to reduce the size of the popup window. This is the best way for me since I have no second monitor connected to my iMac Pro. Although the COM1 and COM2 frequencies can be seen on the control panel, I don’t need to have the popup panel visible since I can see the selected frequencies on the nearest facilities popup window, right?

That said, I reduced the size of the control panel to a top bar only. I can do this while at LPPT, but I am busy getting my clearance and connecting to GND, TWR, DEP, Lisbon Center, etc. The advantage of the nearest facilities popup is that it constantly updates when you fly towards your destination, along with your flight plan. Since I can select more frequencies at the time, I can enter these in the A330-900 Audio panel of DRAIM or click COM1 / (2) in the X-ATC Chatter control panel. It must be said that when I click and activate the new frequency in the X-ATC Chatter, I am only limited to two frequencies.

When I made the necessary settings in X-ATC Chatter and entered the frequencies, I was ready to listen to all the different “pilot to ATC” communications. I heard ATC chatter from the LPPT ground and tower during my ground preparations. Even after my pushback and during the taxi to the runway, I heard ATC chatter occasionally. Don’t forget, this is just randomly ATC. When I say random ATC, it means pre-recorded ATC dedicated to LPPT or any other airport where you are parked and the selected frequency. It offers more realism, and together with, for example, Global Traffic, I also see other aircraft arriving, departing, or taxiing.

Conclusion so far
So once more. When you start X-Plane at, for example, KJFK on an apron with no AI traffic add-on programs installed, you will have ATC chatter, even when you are alone on KJFK. In other words, installing a payware add-on AI traffic package will make it all more realistic. That said, you can add AI traffic with World Traffic from Classic Jet Simulations or Traffic Global for Windows or for macOS from Just Flight. Both these add-on packages are payware.

Adding ATC Messages

ATC Programs
There are dozens of options for interacting with ATC, not just pre-recorded ATC. You can use real-time online ATC programs like those from IVAO or VATSIM. These online programs offer a real human ATC response, provided that the X-Plane airport tower does have a VATSIM/IVAO ATC controller(s). If there’s nobody in the virtual tower, there’s also no real ATC.

That brings us to Simple ATC, 124thATC, or X-Life. Some words about X-Life from JARDesign. X-ATC Chatter recognised X-Life, but officially, X-Life has never been updated for X-Plane 12. Besides that, I am unsure if the Bluebell XL AI aircraft packages are updated. Therefore, I leave that out of this review.
It’s time to start with Simple ATC.

Using Simple ATC
It is time to check out Simple ATC, a part of the X-ATC Chatter package, to the previous X-ATC Chatter experience. With Simple ATC, we can file a basic, non-complex flight plan and use this feature to send text messages or communicate with the virtual ATC to request a clearance, engine start-up, pushback, taxi, etc. The Simple ATC feature can be used for both VFR and IFR flights. Mark from Stick and Rudder Studios said this Simple ATC is not an advanced feature, but it is handy and easy to use.

Simple ATC Structure
Below are a couple of screenshots from the Simple ATC tabs. You will find the Flight Plan, Communications, Options, and Parameters tabs from left to right.

The first screenshot below—Flight Plan tab—shows an example of a flight plan from KJFK to KSEA. If all the values are OK, it is not so important right now; for me, it is more to show you that the data or selections to make are not that complicated. But you need to listen to ATIS to figure out which runway is in use, and via a chart, you need to know which SID and STAR you must choose for the arrival and departure.

The second screenshot is the Communications tab, which is currently empty. It is empty because I haven’t filled out my flight plan yet.

The last screenshot represents the Parameters tab. I leave all the pre-settings as they are; however, you can see that it is primarily intended for VFR flights.

I left out the Options tab for the moment, but I will explain that in a minute.

Filing my Flight Plan
Now that we have seen the basic structure of the Simple ATC tabs let me see what happens when you enter and file a flight plan. Depending on the Options tab setting “Show Pilot Transmission Window,” you either have a separate ATC transmission window or one that is integrated into the Communications tab. That depends on your preference and whether you have ticked “Show Pilot Transmission Window.”

Since I only used text messages, the following screenshots of these steps can be seen below.
It is very easy to follow without the stress of speaking or using online ATC with virtual ATC people. When I write “virtual ATC people,” I mean people like you and me, who are ATC controllers offering ATC support from their homes. The following screenshots show you some ATC text messages from the clearance, pushback, engine startup, and taxi to the assigned runway. They are easy to follow.

A couple of notes regarding the above screenshots: when you don’t need the ATC window, you click the left-hand upper arrow, and the whole panel collapses. When the window is expanded, you can see a “Hint” on the left-hand side. That hint could be anything. The sample screenshots include the following: you need to switch ON the transponder, the squawk code you need to enter, switch to a different ATC frequency, and so on.

Conclusion so far
There’s not much to say. It is as easy as you can expect, and it works flawlessly. What has it added to the actual X-ATC Chatter?

X-ATC Chatter is the basic program. That works continuously in the background unless you switch it OFF, but under normal conditions, it is always there; you always hear it. When using Simple ATC, you only add your dedicated ATC communication based on the flight plan and use text or spoken text.

Using 124thATC
As Mark mentioned, you could also use 124thATC. When you prefer another external program than the standard build in Simple ATC, I could suggest going for 124thATC. The current package version is v2.1.0+build.2693.

According to Antonello Matacchieri “The 124thATC plugin for X-Plane 10-12 provides enhanced ATC services and therefore increased realism for your flight simulation experience, without the need for joining some online flight simulation network. Since the plugin is designed to work completely offline, it can be used for any airport at any time. All phases from flight plan filing until taxiing to the gate or parking position at the destination airport are covered by this plugin.”

I don’t want to go too deep into 124thATC, but the freeware add-on plugin goes deeper into IFR flight planning. With 124thATC, you can file a flight plan with all waypoints, but more data from yourself is needed to file it. Let’s have a quick look.

After downloading the ZIP file from the above URL, unzip it and install it in the Resources/plugins folder. At X-Plane startup, a message will appear that welcomes you to 124thATC. From the X-Plane menu Plugins – 124thATC, you see several options. Most of them speak for themselves. The light grey menu items are not accessible, but the one I am currently interested in is the Options menu item. It should be noted that the 124thATC small popup “Delivery” window at startup of X-Plane is seen without doing anything. This is logical since ATC starts with delivery communication. That said, the second screenshot below shows my selected Option popup and the delivery popup.

Back to the Options popup.
In the Options popup window, many changes can be made. However, I left them all in default, so I didn’t change any settings, which worked OK for me. In the second screenshot above, I marked the ATC text message bar slightly different from the one I saw with Simple ATC.

Let me show you some examples when you use 124thATC instead of Simple ATC.

As said before, when X-Plane starts, the Delivery popup is visible. Besides all the aircraft preparations that must be done, the File Flight Plan button must be pressed when you’re ready. The Control popup window allows you to enter all the data for your flight, including your entire flight plan. By default, the Control window is for IFR flights, but you can click the VFR Flight in the lower right-hand corner. Then, the flight plan changes to a VFR configuration.

When done, click the Insert Flightplan button. A new popup window, namely the “Request IFR Clearance”, automatically appears. When you request the clearance, a green text message appears in the text bar below, followed by an automatic ATC reply in white. After the automatic reply, you can select from the new popup window if you are ready for the readback, repeat the ATC message or change from runway. And so this goes on.

These add-on ATC programs, including Simple ATC, part of the ATC-X Chatter, only offer direct ATC communication for your aircraft only. It has nothing to do with the core function of ATC-X Chatter, oral random ATC messages related to an airport, and related to a service like delivery, ground, tower, arrival, departure, centre, etc. In other words, you can use ATC-X Chatter alone or with Simple ATC or 124thATC.

Summary

What can I say… I loved it. It wasn’t a manageable review title. Reviewing an airport, scenery, or aircraft is much easier, but a program like ATC-X Chatter seems easy to write about, but it isn’t. I hope I have given this review an inside look at what you can do with it and how nicely it integrates and works with X-Plane. X-Plane plugins from Sticks and Rudder Studios are widely known for their functionality and regular updates. Mark always tries to offer the best service possible, and his videos help You understand how to handle one of his products.

I tried to cover ATC-X Chatter as I would like to use it and see/hear it. I didn’t had this wonderful plugin when I started with my Airbus A330-900 transatlantic flight review. When I had it before, I wasn’t alone on the transatlantic.

It’s worth my time and worth your money!

You can check it out and buy it at the dedicated X-Plane.Org store page or via Gumroad. In both cases, the product costs 18 USD.

Feel free to contact me if you’ve got additional questions related to this impression. You can reach me via email Angelique.van.Campen@gmail.com or to Angelique@X-Plained.com.

With Greetings,
Angelique van Campen

 

 

Add-on:	Payware Sticks and Rudder Studios X-ATC Chatter
Publisher | Developer:	X-Plane.Org | Stick and Rudder Studios
Description:	Realistic ATC Chatter
Software Source / Size:	Download / Approximately 50,9 Mb (zipped)
Reviewed by:	Angelique van Campen
Published:	March 30rd 2025
Hardware:	- iMac Pro - Intel 3GHz Intel Xeon W / 4.5Ghz - Radeon Pro Vega 64 16368 MB - 64 GB 2666 MHz DDR4 - 1 internal 1TB SSD (Bootcamp Windows 11) - 1 external 2TB LaCie Rugged Pro SSD (Sonoma 14.x) - Thrustmaster TCA Captain Pack Airbus Edition - Honeycomb Alpha Flight Controls - Honeycomb Bravo Throttle Quadrant
Software:	- macOS Sequoia (15.2) - X-Plane 12.1.2