This is what has worked for me. Until I bought
an AKG D112 kick mc, I was dealing with a super dull CAD kick drum mic which may as well only be used on old classic rock replica recordings or jazz tunes, because there is absolutely no attack. Just dull low end. Gotta work with what you have.
If you can re-record the track, start by putting the mic further in the drum and point it just a little off-axis from the beater. If it's too late, do this...
Here's a starting point. Add a compressor and get your settings the way you want them. This is to even out the louder/quieter hits. Start with a preset for kick drums and tweak from there. Google or Youtube kick drum compression settings to learn the basics.
Then...Hi-pass filter it at around 50hz (so you're cutting anything off below 50 hz), EQ out the boxiness in the mid range (sweep around to find it), boost any lows in the 75-90 hz areas if needed, using a hi Q sweep around the upper range anywhere from 1-6k to find the frequency that really makes the beater attack stand out. Widen the Q a bit and give that freq a total boost of 3 db or more depending on how much you need to boost it. Call this track "KICK".
Then send a copy of the kick track to an aux (or literally make a copy of it), use an eq and high pass it to the max. Only boost that same higher freq you boosted on your original kick track (or sweep around to find an alternate freq in the same area that does an equally good job at bringing out the attack of the beater, so you're not over boosting the exact same freq). Once you find the freq, give it a pretty narrow Q and raise it up in an over-exaggerated manner (because you said REALLY dull, right?). I'm not talking 15 dB here, maybe 10 max, but use your ears (and your eyes to watch clipping the track or drum bus, or master)! Then roll off any of the frequencies that have not been boosted on this track. That way, the only frequencies that will be heard on this track are the ones you boosted. Call this track "BEATER".
Make sure you send at least the beater track to your drum reverb send. Not too much, just enough so you can hear it when the beater track is in solo mode. It'll stick out way too much if you don't try this.
Now, raise the KICK track up in the mix and see how it sounds with your newly added eq parametres, with all the right frequencies cut and boosted. If it's already good where it's at, you're set. But if still too dull, slowly start to raise up your "BEATER" track until you hear the amount of pedal click that you want. A lot of styles may vary, but for rock, hard rock, metal, etc you may want more beater than say a jazz album (probably no beater in that case). Just for example.
If you want to give your kick more "flavour" or character in the mix, sometime harmonics can help you think the overall sound the drum to be more full and present. If money's tight, try a cheaper plugin like the BBE Harmonic Maximizer and tweak until desired tone (no, not the Sound Maximizer).
Listen to some 90's albums like Soundgraden Superunknown, Pearl Jam Ten, Metallica Black Album or Load (back when drum sounds were sweet due to good engineering/mixing rather just cheating with modern day garbage like drum replacement and auto-drummers). You can almost hear the separation of those the two (main kick and beater). Almost as if they did the same thing. Some may have, but I doubt all.
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