I just mixed a band and one of the songs had the bass mirroring the kick the whole way though. I ended up using 2 compressors chained back to back with the fastest attack so that the transient didn't come through as much. It ended up sounding a little better than sidechaining. I don't have to do this a lot, but maybe if you're having a similar problem a fast attack might help you. By the way, this was the Waves SSL Comp.
