Prepare the bass drum. The drum should deliver a solid, deep bass sound with percussive clicks and little sustain. For contemporary popular music, the resonant head (toward the audience) will likely have a hole in it for placing a microphone or may be removed entirely. If there is too much boom, consult with the drummer about reducing resonance.
Place the microphone. It should be a dynamic mic, capable of handling high sound pressure levels. Most manufacturers make mics exclusively for this purpose. Some classic choices include AKG D112, Electrovoice RE20 and the Shure Beta 52. If the resonant head has a mic hole, your placement choice is easy; otherwise, place the mic inside the shell, off the axis of the pedal beater, 3 or 4 inches from the edge of the shell.
Adjust the input gain at the mixer. Start with the gain control at the top of the bass drum channel strip, raising it slowly as the drummer plays until the peak indicator lights, and then back it off enough so that the hardest hits do not light the indicator.
Raise the channel fader to 0. Evaluate the drum sound. If there is no resonant skin, you can alter the amount of beater "click" by moving the mic toward or away from the beater axis. If the drum is too boomy, turning the mic so that it is at a 45-degree angle to the beater head may thin the sound slightly. Get the best sound you can with mic placement alone.
Adjust the equalization (EQ) at the mixer. Typical mixers have three or four ranges of EQ and often a Lo Cut switch. Although it seems counterintuitive, engage the Lo Cut switch to eliminate non-musical ultra-low-frequency tones that otherwise muddy the bottom end. Add 3 to 6 dB at the low-frequency knob, usually 80 hertz. Subtract 3 to 6 dB in the midrange around 400 to 500 hertz. Add 3 to 6 dB at the high-frequency control. If the frequency is selectable, start at 4000 hertz.
Listen to the bass drum in the context of the entire band playing. To increase the bottom end, raise the low-frequency control. To give more beater "click," increase the high-frequency amount. Reducing the midrange further may help clear the mix if vocals are being buried. Changes to the equalization may require adjustments of gain and volume.
Patch in an audio compressor if it is available. Start with a compression ratio of 4:1 with an attack time of 5 milliseconds and a release time of about 200 milliseconds. Adjust the threshold to give a maximum of about 4 dB of compression. A compressor delivers punch and evens out the levels of individual drum hits. Adjust the attack time to alter punch and threshold, which will alter the dynamics.