A method and system to generate decoded information from received symbols in communication receivers. A first embodiment is a method to detect digitally modulated symbols and generate decoded information. The method includes receiving digitally modulated symbols, demapping the digitally modulated symbols to generate soft decisions representing digitally modulated symbols, multiplying the soft decisions by an adaptive factor to generate scaled soft decisions; and decoding the scaled soft decisions to generate decoded information. A second embodiment is a system having modules to detect digitally modulated symbols and generate decoded information. These embodiments can be applied in several wired and wireless communication applications including, but not limited to, WiMAX applications.