I used to layer kicks in my old ableton days & found it didn't work. There are all kinds of phase cancellations & sht all over. They sounded big at the time but that was only because the volume had doubled to the rest of the track. When it came to putting it on CD, the track would sound half as quiet compared to other CDs.
Sidechaining is excellent for carving out holes in the rest of the track so a Kick can drop in and sound big. But that's another story.
I've found a really good monster kick sound by :-
Getting a nice analogue drum machine kick.
Adding a real kick sample with room ambience (from a break or whatever) & sidechaining out the start of the kick. (chopping off the front of the sample, delaying the start & slowing the attack prob does the same)
- That'll give you a heavy kick with a sense of space and size.
The icing on the cake is to add a Thh to your Whack, then you get a ThhWhack. That makes Kicks sounds psychologically much beaffier.
Copy you original real kick sample, reverse it, select a bit of the ambient tail, pitch it up about 8-10. Then add it in to your other 2 samples at about 10 clicks earlier. you may need to put a ramp on the attack. This should give you the ThhW bit.
Unfortunately for it to all stay in time with the other tracks and drums the whole Kick combo has to remain 10 clicks earlier if you use a resample of the result.
Well, that's my two penneth worth.
