In a CELP coder a comparison between a target signal and a plurality of synthetic signals is made. The synthetic signal is derived by filtering a plurality of excitation sequences by a synthesis filter having parameters derived from the target signal. The excitation signal which results in a minimum error between the target signal and the synthetic signal is selected. The search for the best excitation signal requires a substantial computational complexity. To reduce the complexity a preselection of a small number of excitation sequences is made by selecting a small number of excitation sequences resembling the most a backward filtered target signal. With this small number of excitation sequences a full complexity search is made. Due to the reduced number of excitation sequences involved in the final selection the required computational complexity is reduced.