"The" Kick Drum Sound

So I have been trying to get a good kick drum sound and as it turns out, it is much harder than you might think. There are just a few mics that are considered to be "THE" mics for recording the kick and I have one...the AKG D112! This is a mighty microphone and the day it arrived I thought all of my troubles were solved.
No.
You see, I have a freind "in the business" and when I asked him the seemingly simple question "how do I get a good kick drum sound" he used terms like "black art" and "tomes written on the subject" which I kind of already knew because I had spend days reading them and learning about compression and gate and attack and realease and threshold and shell micing and head micing and duel mic micing and on and on and on! Keep in mind this is just one drum. I have not even addressed the other 4 drums involved not to mention the cymbals. My friend said that engineers spend "5 to 7 years developing their drum sound" and now I can see why it takes so long. I love doing this but I wish I had started 20 years ago. I would be so much further than I am right now. A google search yeilds close to 2 million hits on the subject. I guess I better get started.