Adjust engine, ATC and cockpit volume in MSFS, FSX, Prepar3D and X-Plane, with fixes for quiet radios, add-on mixers and unresponsive sliders.
For a general-purpose flight simulator, open the Sound or Audio settings and lower Engine/Aircraft before raising ATC/Voice or Cockpit/Interior. Keep Master volume, if present, as the final overall control. If one category does not respond, check the aircraft’s tablet, radio panel, plug-in or separate communications application, which may have its own mixer.
Can engine, ATC and cockpit volume be adjusted separately?
Yes, most general-purpose flight simulators provide separate channels, although their names and the sounds assigned to them vary.
| Volume control | What it usually changes |
|---|---|
| Master | The simulator’s overall output. Some older simulators provide an on/off master sound toggle instead of a master slider. |
| Engine or Aircraft | Engine, propeller, rotor, wind and aircraft mechanical sounds. Interior and exterior recordings may be treated separately. |
| Cockpit or Interior | Switches, levers, fans, airflow and cockpit ambience. Spoken callouts and warning tones may use another channel. |
| ATC, Voice, Radio or Communications | Built-in controller and pilot speech. It normally does not control an external online ATC application. |
| Environment or World | Weather, airport activity, ground vehicles and nearby aircraft. |
| UI or Music | Menus, interface notifications and music rather than normal in-flight sound. |
If you are comparing translated settings and asking które to (“which one is it?”, often typed ktore to), match the function in the table rather than expecting the English label to appear exactly. Localised menus and add-on aircraft use different wording.
A mistake we see constantly is reducing Master volume because the engine is overpowering. That lowers ATC and cockpit details at the same time. Reduce the Engine or Aircraft channel first, then use Master only to set the final listening level.
How do I balance the sound levels?
The most reliable method is to change one channel at a time while keeping the aircraft, viewpoint and hardware volume unchanged.
- Select the output device. Choose the intended speakers, television or headset in the simulator when that option is available. Confirm that the operating system or console has not muted the application.
- Load a running aircraft. Use the cockpit view at an airport where you can hear the engine, operate switches and receive a spoken ATC transmission. A default aircraft is preferable for the initial setup.
- Establish the overall level. Set Master to a comfortable level, if the simulator provides it. Leave the physical speaker, headset or television volume alone while balancing the channels.
- Lower the engine channel. Adjust Engine or Aircraft until it sounds convincing without masking speech. Test both idle and higher power because a mix that works on the stand may become overwhelming during take-off.
- Set cockpit detail. Operate several switches and controls, then adjust Cockpit or Interior. Do not raise it solely to fix one quiet warning; that sound may be assigned elsewhere.
- Balance ATC speech. Trigger or wait for a transmission, then adjust ATC, Voice, Radio or Communications until every word remains understandable over the engine.
- Save and retest. Reload the aircraft or flight if a change is not applied immediately. Recheck the mix in the same cockpit view before testing other aircraft.
There is no best percentage for every setup. A piston aircraft, open cockpit, helicopter and airliner have very different sound profiles, while closed-back headphones reveal details that small television speakers can lose.
How should I set engine volume in the simulator?
Engine sound in the simulator should be judged from the cockpit at both idle and high power. Do not use an external camera as the reference: aircraft sound packages deliberately make exterior engines louder and less insulated than their interior recordings.
Choose a lower Engine setting when speech disappears during high-power operation. Choose a higher setting when RPM or thrust changes are difficult to recognise and ATC remains clear. Avoid compensating for a quiet add-on by maximising every global channel; inspect the aircraft’s own audio mixer first.
Where are the controls in each flight simulator?
The controls are normally on the main Sound or Audio settings page, but older simulators and complex aircraft may divide them between several menus.
How do I adjust FSX volume?
Open the Sound page from FSX’s Settings menu and balance the Engines, Cockpit, Environment and Voice levels. Voice controls built-in ATC; increasing Cockpit volume will not make the controller louder.
FSX also has a master sound toggle associated with the Q key, so check that sound has not been switched off before changing sliders. If engines and cockpit sounds work but ATC does not, verify the voice playback device as well as the Voice level. Our detailed FSX controls for ATC, cockpit and environment volume cover those platform-specific settings.
Where are the controls in MSFS 2020 and MSFS 2024?
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and 2024 place their global sound categories in the main Audio settings. Menu wording differs between the two simulators and their supported platforms, so search the settings for Audio rather than relying on a menu path from another version.
Use the global aircraft and voice or communications categories for the basic mix. Complex aircraft may add another sound page to an EFB, tablet or configuration panel; both the simulator slider and the aircraft-specific control must be above zero.
What about Prepar3D and X-Plane?
Prepar3D provides global sound controls, but exact labels differ by version and aircraft. X-Plane generally separates aircraft, radio, interior or exterior, and environmental sound categories. In both platforms, plug-in-driven aircraft can provide an additional mixer that overrides or layers on top of the global settings.
Why is ATC still too quiet?
ATC remains quiet when the wrong channel, radio receiver or output device is being adjusted.
- Raise ATC, Voice, Radio or Communications rather than Cockpit volume.
- Check the active COM radio, selected receiver on the audio panel and the radio volume knob where the aircraft models them.
- Confirm that the avionics and electrical systems are powered. A correctly tuned radio can still be silent when its receiver is off.
- If online ATC runs as a separate application, use that application’s volume and output settings. The simulator’s built-in ATC slider generally cannot control it.
- If speech is completely absent, stop raising levels and treat it as a routing, radio or sound fault.
For Microsoft Flight Simulator, follow our quiet-ATC checks for output routing, communications balance and aircraft radios when the voice slider alone does not solve it.
Why are cockpit warnings or callouts still quiet?
Warning tones, GPWS callouts and crew voices are not necessarily part of the Cockpit channel. Depending on the simulator and aircraft, they may use a voice, warning, assistance or aircraft-specific setting.
Changing ATC volume will not reliably change those sounds either. MSFS users can check the separate controls that affect cockpit warnings, GPWS callouts and crew voices rather than distorting the whole cockpit mix.
Why do the engine or cockpit sliders have no effect?
A non-responsive slider usually indicates an aircraft-specific mixer, a different sound assignment or a global output problem.
- Only one add-on is affected: inspect its EFB, tablet, configuration panel or plug-in menu. Add-on sound packages can combine or bypass the simulator’s normal categories.
- Every aircraft is affected: check Master volume, the selected output device and the operating-system application mixer.
- The slider works outside but not inside: the sound package probably uses separate exterior and interior recordings. Compare it from the same viewpoint.
- Changes disappear after leaving settings: apply or save the settings, then reload the aircraft or flight. Some sound systems do not rebuild their mix immediately.
- Only ATC is affected: check Voice or Communications, the voice playback device and the aircraft radio rather than the engine or cockpit channels.
Test the same controls with a default aircraft. If the default aircraft responds normally, the add-on’s mixer or sound configuration is responsible. If neither responds, investigate the simulator’s global audio settings and output route.
Can the operating-system volume mixer separate engine and ATC?
No, the operating-system mixer normally sees the simulator as one application and cannot separate engine, cockpit and ATC channels combined inside that process.
It can balance online ATC or voice chat when those run as separate applications. Some simulators also provide a dedicated communications output, allowing radio speech to go to a headset while aircraft sound remains on speakers. When volume balancing is not enough, use our guide to routing simulator and communications audio to different devices.