This paper describes a 8-32 kbit/s scalable speech and audio coder submitted as a candidate for the ITU-T G729-based Embedded Variable bitrate (G729EV) standardization. The coder is built upon a 3-stage coding structure consisting of: narrowband cascade CELP coding at 8 and 12 kbit/s, bandwidth extension based on wideband linear-predictive coding (WB-LPC) at 14 kbit/s, and MDCT coding in a WB-LPC weighted signal domain from 14 to 32 kbit/s. ITU-T test results showed that this coder passed all the requirements of the G729EV qualification phase.