I can't for the life of me figure out how to make a deep bassline and still keep the kick drum audible. Anyone care to explain?

You have to 'notch' or 'scoop' out a section of the audio of the bass with an equalizer to get it to coexist with the kick without wiping it out. The scooped section of the bass is often countered with a boost of the same frequency range on the kick. A good way to pick your spots on the kick are to run a spectrum analyzer to see where the meat of the kick is...then use that frequency range for your adjustments.

Here is a short article:
http://www.sweetwater.com/expert-cen.../d--04/23/2004

There is plenty of reading on the net regarding this.

Thanks Smorg, I've tried using the EQ cutting out parts, but I'll try again today now that I have some numbers to relate to. I'll see if I can figure out how a spectrum analyzer works too.

You can download 'Voxengo SPAN' for free. You add it as a plugin...then you put it in as an insert effect on your kick channel...solo the kick...turn on SPAN and open it to edit...you will see the line jump as the kick hits...

...pretty cool tool actually...the ears are the best tool but it sometimes helps to know where in the spectrum the sound is most prevalent...

Another way to proceed is to use a sidechain compressor. It's the best way to make the kick and the bass "jump" together.

Everytime the kicks is played, the bassline is compressed : this way, you can keep your bassline loud most of the time but when the kick is played, you can hear it clearly.

Hie, I'm new here ...
EQing and sidechaning basskick combo are very powerfull tooles. Both are widely used nowdays. However I'd suggest first to decide what particular effect U'r after.

Years of electronic 4x4 sound introduced infinite number of different combos : there are styles where kick is presented before the bass (is more dominant) or behind it.

From this question I can conlude you'r after kinda both dominant in the mix. My suggestion would be to start thinking about kick-bass relationship from the sequinsing stage - don't place'em too close, work both envelopes not to conflict etc.