android - Recording sound to an array using AudioRecord not working (Android)

Question

I'm trying to record sound into an array (short or bytes) using AudioRecord (MediaRecorder worked like a charm but it only records to files, and not to arrays). However, with the code below I am unable to record. When I try to print the contents of my array all I get is zeroes. I use my real device to record, and not the emulator.

I would appreciate any suggestions.

public class SoundCapture extends Activity {

private int _buffer_size;
public final int SAMPLE_RATE = 8000;
private AudioRecord _recorder;
private short[] _wave;

public boolean captureSound() {
    _buffer_size = AudioRecord.getMinBufferSize(SAMPLE_RATE, AudioFormat.CHANNEL_IN_MONO, AudioFormat.ENCODING_PCM_16BIT);
    _wave = new short[_buffer_size];
    _recorder = new AudioRecord(MediaRecorder.AudioSource.MIC, SAMPLE_RATE, AudioFormat.CHANNEL_IN_MONO, AudioFormat.ENCODING_PCM_16BIT, _buffer_size);

    _recorder.startRecording();

    //Recording for 5 seconds
    synchronized(this) {
        try{
            this.wait(5000);
        }
        catch(InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            return false;
        }
    }
    _recorder.read(_wave, 0, SAMPLE_RATE);
    _recorder.stop();
    _recorder.release();
    _recorder = null;
    printWave();
    return true;
}

private void printWave() {
    System.out.println("Let the wave begin!!!   ");
    for(int i = 0; i < _wave.length; ++i) {
        System.out.print(_wave[i] + ", ");
    }
    System.out.println("The End!!!   ");
}


}