A method (1100) and apparatus (100) generate a candidate code-vector to code an information signal. The method can include producing (1110) a weighted target vector from an input signal. The method can include processing (1120) the weighted target vector through an inverse weighting function to create a residual domain target vector. The method can include performing (1130) a first search process on the residual domain target vector to obtain an initial fixed codebook code-vector. The method can include performing (1140) a second search process over a subset of possible codebook code-vectors for a low weighted-domain error to produce a final fixed codebook code-vector. The subset of possible codebook code-vectors can be based on the initial fixed codebook code-vector. The method can include generating (1150) a codeword representative of the final fixed codebook code-vector. The codeword can be for use by a decoder to generate an approximation of the input signal.