I recommend going with the most simple, quickest, phase-friendly, and easiest to mix approach. That means using only one mic, and placing it halfway inside the hole of a ported head.

There’s really no reason to reinvent the wheel, as countless, great-sounding recordings have been made with this mic placement.

However, if the kick drum you’re recording does not have a ported head, you can try these options:

• Find and mic the sweet spot on the front head
• Take the front head off entirely, mic the sweet spot of the beater head
• Place the mic on the beater side of the drum, under the snare, and focused on where the beater makes contact with the head

//Jon
Twitter: @stsn