Why doesn't your kick have energy below 80hz? You may have read somewhere about high-passing your kick - this is a terrible idea for house music. not a bad idea to cut low frequencies, just bad to cut up to 80hz :) no reason not to cut frequencies that the speaker cant produce as long as they dont ...

looking at the comparison chart looks like it gives a lot of value for your money

Devices->Device Setup->VST Audio System->choose the sound card driver on the first drop box.

hmm i would compare the situations with a mixing engineer that is trying out a few eq modules to decide which sounds better for this and that. its also depends on the mindset of that person. if someone sits for hours on a kick and over process it in the sake of processing and its sound bad than yeah...

tbh i rarely feel like i need to sidechain anything to make it sit in the mix well.
i use sidechain on drum/percussion to get a bit of pumping effect. but thats about it.

I hate sidechaining because i think I'm not addressing mix issues but I know people who swear by it, I have tried tons of stuff come to think about it. I remember once when I had a bass pattern that landed on a kick here and there and I actually cut the bass notes out, made a new audio file and app...

i started experimenting with 3 layers after i saw someone using it and the kick he got was a real beast. but different timbre than what im looking for. i always get good kicks but always too punchy/bright and than when im trying to adjust it to sound like something else is when i lose its presence. ...

layers are a lot more work, but i like toying around with it and i think that once i get it right it sound so much better than a kick from one osc. i do it the exact other way, i prefer one osc, the kicks that have been the bedrock of dance music 808 /909 are one oscillator kicks. i never layer kic...