Working with a single stereo file, tips/ideas?

So this past Monday I had a orientation/mix review call with Joseph, who is fantastic btw!

The mix in question was a live, single take performance of an acid house track. The emotion & arc of the piece was awesome, but the kick drum was lacking any body/punch in the actual recording. Sub was there on the 303, but no oomph on the kick.

The performance was so good overall, I wanted to see if I could finish it somehow. So I did an overdub of the TR707 kick to a separate track, and mixed the song using what I know (still learning) of the Foundation Method… as best I could with just a stereo file & a kick drum track.

I thought it turned out pretty well, which Joseph in turn confirmed. I got a lot closer to a great mix than I would have thought possible given limited options!! That really surprised me.

So obviously after that I’ve been thinking of all the tricks one could develop to deal with extreme limitations. Made me curious what yall have done out there to solve similar problems?

Ever dealt with nothing but a 2-track mix? Or a very low number of stems? If so what did you do?

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Working with a single stereo file, tips/ideas?