I will clone tracks, and then treat them differently, and bus them. But it's the exception and not the rule. When I do it, it's usually a snare.

I just look for the right sample. It's already out there... somewhere.

soens
I just look for the right sample. It's already out there... somewhere.

When you find can you tell me what it is?

bitflipper
I reserve that degree of effort for shakers.

8 tracks
   transpose up/down 4 octaves,
    send to separate buses to expand and compress
    combine on a master shaker buss
     add a bit of echo
 
 

the sound of the kick,
will not make the song any better.

batsbrew
the sound of the kick,
will not make the song any better.

Obviously there are no hard rules...
If it sounds good... it is good
 
All that said, if you have to "massage" the kick THAT much to make it work, (IMO) the source sound isn't right.
Always best to get the sound right (up front) when recording.  IOW, A kick drum sound that works in context.

• Good kick drum
• Decent mics that are positioned well
• Decent acoustic space in which to record the drum/s

Recording and mixing acoustic drums is one of the hardest tasks for a home studio (especially true if the engineer is a novice).  Read up and arm yourself with some basic knowledge of what mics to use... and where to place them.
Jump in and start recording.  The more you record, the better you'll get at all the above.
 

My rule of thumb with obsessing is simple. If something bothers me, I work on it until it doesn't bother me. 

The greatest dance songs have special kick fx's (hip hop), imho.  (Last night I skated-danced to hip-hop 'feeling' such excellence in the kick-beatz)
 
For me the kick IS the most important percussive and requires all kinds of TLC.  Fortunately, many bass drums (beside Superior, Addictive drums, etc.) have been sampled and polished to 'near' perfection in Sonar X, already.