Wavea has released Flite 2.0, a large free update to its hybrid sampling-and-synthesis workstation plugin — and for anyone playing an MPE controller, the headline is simple: Flite now speaks MPE. The update landed on 9 September 2026, marking the plugin's second anniversary, and it is free for every existing owner.
Flite was always an interesting outlier. Launched in late 2024 by Sharooz Raoofi's company Wavea, it aimed at the territory occupied by Kontakt, Falcon and Omnisphere — four multi-samplers layered with a multi-engine synth — but at a fraction of the price. What it lacked, until now, was per-note expression. Version 2.0 closes that gap.
What MPE Support Actually Brings Here
Flite's architecture makes MPE more interesting than a simple checkbox. The plugin combines up to four multi-sampler slots with a virtual analog, FM and wavetable engine, all feeding a shared filter and effects chain. Adding MPE means per-note pitch bend, pressure and slide can now be routed through Flite's modulation matrix to any destination — filter cutoff on one voice, grain position on another, FM ratio on a third.
Alongside MPE, version 2.0 adds full MIDI CC assignments, which matters more than it sounds. Controllers that send auxiliary data outside the MPE spec — foot pedals, ribbon strips, the extra gestures on keybeds like the Osmose — can now be mapped without leaving the plugin.
The practical caveat, as always with a new MPE implementation, is the preset library. A factory bank designed before MPE existed will not suddenly play expressively; the modulation routings have to be built. Expect the shipped presets to respond to MPE unevenly until Wavea (or the community) revisits them. This is the normal shape of a first MPE release, and it is worth knowing before you judge the feature by the first ten patches you load.
Everything Else in 2.0
The rest of the update is substantial enough that MPE is arguably not even the biggest news.
The sampler now imports SFZ, SF2 and Decent Sampler patches, with multi-sample, velocity-layer and layered-instrument support intact. That is a meaningful bridge: a large body of free orchestral and acoustic sampling work lives in SFZ and Decent Sampler format, and pulling those into an engine with per-note expression routing opens obvious doors for anyone building expressive acoustic-hybrid sounds. Loading also expands to WAV, AIFF, FLAC and MP3, with proper drag-and-drop across the waveform view, mapping editor and instrument slots.
On the synthesis side, the virtual analog engine gets a wider oscillator set with morphing and stacked waveforms plus new wavetable content, and the FM section adds musical and exponential FM configurations with new modulator-wave controls, ratios and preset recipes.
The filter section gains three new modes — comb, formant and resonator. These three are exactly the ones that reward pressure and slide control, since they all have a strong, audible relationship between a single parameter and perceived timbre. A resonator swept by per-note pressure is one of the more immediately satisfying things you can do with an MPE controller.
Modulation deepens too. The LFO now offers draw, sample & hold, smooth random and evolving modes with skew and evolve controls, and Wavea has adopted a Serum-style bidirectional macro assignment workflow with visible ranges and clear assignment feedback.
The sequencer was rebuilt from scratch: two independent note sequencers with voice routing, two mod sequencers, playback modes including ping-pong, brownian and outside-in, and per-step probability, ratcheting, velocity and octave control. Euclidean tools, expanded scale support, MIDI file export and selectable hardware MIDI output round it out.
Effects gain distortion, ring modulator, phaser, tape echo, panner and granular delay, joining the existing Sinevibes granular reverb.
Availability
Flite 2.0 is a free update for existing users. New buyers can pick it up for $69 during an anniversary promotion, down from $99. It runs as VST3 and AU on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and Windows. A free Flite Play version remains available, offering preset playback with a handful of macros — a reasonable way to test how the instrument responds to your controller before spending anything.
Full details are on the Wavea site, and Synth Anatomy has a walkthrough of the complete changelog.
For MPE players, the interesting question is not whether Flite 2.0 is a good synth — it plainly is — but whether a sample-plus-synthesis workstation with real per-note routing becomes a serious alternative to dedicated MPE instruments. On paper, the combination of SFZ import and per-note modulation is unusual. It will be worth watching what the community builds with it.