yes i have a wicked tip for kicks in techno. Threshold -15, bring the make up gain up to compensate.

REALLY fiddle with the ratio and understand what it's doing to the sound of the kick.

of course get the attack and release to suit too.

It's that ratio that really gives power. Well that what I find anyway. But I think people have different ways of doing things to suit their own sound.

Another good thing is putting a 1/2 decent kick into Soundforge and experiment with various plugins. Save loads and loads of variations and when you do your track, you'll have loads of different tones to work with.