Abstract: An apparatus codes excitation parameters for very low bit rate voice messaging using a method that processes a voice message to generating speech parameters. The speech parameters are separated (316) to produce a first group of energy parameters and a second group of pitch and voicing parameters. Subsequently, the first group of energy parameters are encoded and compressed using a non-uniform root-mean-square scalar process (318) to create a first plurality of encoded data. Additionally, the second group of pitch and voicing parameters are compressed, encoded, and combined into a single parameter using a three slope vector encoding process (320) that creates a second plurality of encoded data. Finally, the first and second plurality of encoded data are multiplexed (322) to create a multiplexed signal for transmission, the multiplexed signal representing the voice message.