I lift mine to be even with the amount that my pedal lifts the drum on the batter side so from the side the drum is level with the ground. I don't do the "upward tilt".

Couple of reasons:

By elevating the front of the drum a bit, you create a little more "bite" from the spurs. it places the "focus" of the weight and force exerted onto the spurs more. This, in combination with a rug, works very well for stability.

Also, by changing the perpendicular angle of the bass drum head, the beater of the pedal will contact the head "earlier".

I have seen some bass drums that are reeeeeeeaaaally tilted, though and I don't think that's good for the part of the bass drum's hoop where the pedal clamps. you would almost have to not have any clamp pressure on the hoop at all from some of the examples I have seen.

I like a little tilt -but not much.

A lot of guys using 18" or 20" bass drums (and even 16" !) do it so the beater strike more to the center of the head too.....

Maybe I misunderstood. Yes, indeed -when using a small diameter bass drum, people often use a "lifter" or a "cradle" of some kind in order to raise/center the entire drum.

No, maybe it was me that misunderstood the thread.....now that I've re-read it, he was talking about the front head only....my bad....

But in the old days they didn't have risers for small bass drums either....:D

With the drum lifted off of the ground, it allows the drum to resonate more. This works with bass drums that don't have toms mounted on them (this stifles the resonance so much that it doesn't matter). I tend to mount my toms from stands rather than from the bass drum, so I can get the bigger and more resonant sound from my bass drum. If you raise the bass drum so that the front hoop is more than about an inch off of the ground, it will torsion the batter hoop enough that it will affect the tension of the batter head, and that's not good for your sound, the head, or the hoop.

I've experimented a LOT with this with my DW kit, my 1970 Ludwig Downbeat, and various other kits I've owned along the way--all with the same results. Maybe some people do it and don't know why (they see other people doing it), but there actually IS a reason--bigger and fuller sound from your kick drum!

My standard gigging kit features an 8x20" kick, and I do til ti slightly. Nothing real dramatic, just about 1". I do feel I get a little more resonant tone that way, but it also eliminates the potential any rattle or buzz from the shell or lug touching the floor. I never put a rug under my kit (I use small rubber pads under my pedals so nothing moves), and I just don't like having the drum directly on the floor.

I do have a 16" kick that I used to use for cocktail gigs (though not recently), and I always tilted that about 5 degrees beyond the already necessary elevation.

THANKS for all the great feedback thus far!

You guys are proving once again that you can indeed teach an "old dog" new tricks! I appreciate it.

Thats what I was taught also, it increases the resonance of the drum and projects better.