PROVISION OF SPEECH CODER GAIN INFORMATION USING MULTIPLE CODING MODES

In a speech coder (100), excitation source gain information (802) is transmitted along with a coding mode indicator. The coding mode indicator indicates how the gain information is to be interpreted. In one embodiment, the coding mode indicator can also be utilized to control which of a plurality of excitation sources (202, 206-208) are utilized when synthesizing the speech. The coding mode itself is selected as a function of the periodicity of an input speech signal.