According to some embodiments, in a multi-user detection (MUD) receiver, a method for identifying a beam which produces a specific signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) can include: determining a maximum output SINR; determining beam weights to achieve a target SINR using the determined maximum output SINR; applying the beam weights to one or more received signals to generate a beamformed signal having the target SINR, one or more of the received signals having a signal of interest (SOI), one or more interfering signals, and noise; and providing the beamformed signal to a multi-user detection unit to recover the SOI.