An encoder of a storage medium receives, at a plurality of latches respectively associated with a plurality of memory cells, soft data corresponding to data subject to a read operation specified by the a storage controller, compresses the soft data, and stores the compressed soft data in a buffer before transmitting the compressed soft data to the storage controller. Upon the buffer being full, the encoder writes uncompressed soft data back to at least a subset of the plurality of latches, and upon completion of the writing of the uncompressed soft data, the encoder resumes compressing and storing of soft data in the buffer, and transmits the compressed soft data to the storage controller.