Use a drum key to tune the bass drum. Loosening any one of the drum's lugs will lower the pitch of the drum, and tightening any of the lugs will raise the drum's pitch. The key is to keep all lugs at the same tension level, or close. If one lug is too loose, it can cause you to punch a hole in the drum head with the kick pedal.
Select your desired microphone. Some common bass-drum microphones include the AKG D112, Shure BETA A52 or the Electro Voice RE20. Many recording engineers use a combination of bass drum, dynamic and large diaphragm condenser microphones to capture the drum's sound.
Place the bass-drum microphone inside a short microphone stand. Start by aligning the kick drum with center of the kick drum, or the small hole in the kick drum's front head. Place the microphone two to three feet away from the front of the drum, and slowly work your way towards the drum until you get the desired sound. The closer to the bass drum you place the microphone, the more detailed the sound will be. For a tighter rock sound, place the microphone directly in front of the kick drum's sound hole.