Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for decoding single-frequency or multi-frequency signals, such as DTMF singals, without the use of analog bandpass filters. The method of the present invention is equally applicable to any decoding of multi-frequency signals. The method is composed of a number of steps. First, an incoming (analog) signal is received and transformed into binary signals (1 or 0) at specific instances of time. The incoming binary signal is compared to a pre-defined expected (binary) signal at each time step. The incoming and expected bit values for each time step are then compared and the comparison result is stored as part of a frequency response table. The comparison values are then summed and, if the summed value exceeds a pre-defined threshold, the incoming and expected signals are declared a match. Otherwise, the signals are declared a mis-match.