Well, over one hurdle, on to the next.

I finally found that the secret to getting recording to work was to use the 
KAMix (0.0.7) aplication from KDE to control the ALSA EMU10K1 driver for my 
Sound Blaster Live, and to use the "Capture" settings to enable recording. 

Other mixer apps have a "record" button for various inputs, but while using 
them controlls the pass-through audio just fine, attempting to record always 
results in an empty file.

So the next challange is:  I'm using a flat pre-amp for the turntable.  If I 
adjust the master capture gain for the sound card up to a reasonable 
recording level, I seem to be getting a lot of distortion - sounds like 
clipping.

This would seem to implicate the SBLive as not being up to the task.  

I know several of you have done some vinyl-to-digital work.  What sound card 
did you use?  If you've used more than one, have you found better quality 
with any particular card?