Vengeance Sound has opened a public beta of VPS Avenger 2.5, and the headline for expressive players is simple: the synth now ships with its own MIDI sequencer, complete with per-note pitch curves and per-note modulation. According to Gearnews, the beta went live in early October 2026 and is open to all existing owners of VPS Avenger 2.
What is in the 2.5 beta
The new sequencer includes an arrangement view, a piano roll and MIDI recording. That alone changes how Avenger can be used: instead of living inside a DAW's clip, a pattern can now live inside the plugin itself. For anyone building a sketch quickly, or moving the same instance between hosts, that is a convenient step.
The part that matters most for the MPE community is what happens inside that piano roll. Per the Gearnews report, you can draw pitch curves for individual notes and connect them to the notes that follow, and there are per-note modulation and a humanize function as well. In other words, the sequencer treats each note as something with its own movement, not just a start, an end and a velocity.
Owners can request beta access through their Vengeance Sound account. The beta is not a final release, so features may change before 2.5 ships, and Gearnews did not list a separate price for it.
Why per-note curves matter
MPE works because every note gets its own channel, so pitch bend, pressure and slide can move independently. The weak point of that system has always been editing. Recorded MPE takes are dense streams of controller data, and most DAW piano rolls were designed for notes first and expression second.
A sequencer that thinks in per-note curves is closer to how an expressive performance actually works. Drawing a slow scoop into a single note, or gliding one note into the next, is exactly the kind of gesture an MPE player produces by sliding a finger. Being able to draw it with a mouse opens that vocabulary to people who do not own a controller yet.
It is worth being careful about what has and has not been confirmed. The coverage describes per-note pitch curves and modulation, but it does not say whether Avenger 2.5 reads or writes full MPE data from a hardware controller on separate channels. If you play an MPE keyboard, test how the plugin handles incoming per-note pitch bend and pressure before you rely on it. Our MPE setup guides cover the basics of checking this in any host.
A broader trend: expression moves into the instrument
Avenger is not alone. More plugin makers are adding editing tools that understand per-note data themselves, rather than waiting for DAWs to catch up. It makes sense: the instrument developer knows exactly which parameters respond to pitch, pressure and timbre, and can build an editor that matches.
For sound designers and composers, this is good news. It means expressive writing is no longer limited to people with the right hardware on the desk, and that performances captured on a controller may eventually be editable with the same tools used to draw gestures by hand.
What to do now
If you own Avenger 2, request the beta and try three things: draw a per-note pitch curve across a short phrase, record a take from any controller, and check whether the humanize function adds believable variation. Report bugs to the developer, since betas improve with feedback.
If you do not own it, wait for the final release notes before buying. A beta describes intent, not a finished product, and the details of MPE input are the part to verify.
Either way, the direction is encouraging. When a mainstream synth plugin starts thinking about individual notes as shapes in time, the whole ecosystem benefits.
Sources: Gearnews.