Can the use of subgroups in music mixing improve the preference of a mix and what perceived qualities are most prevalent in preferred mixes, as well as mixes with and without subgroups?

Subgrouping is a mixing technique that most mix engineers use. Little research on perceptual evaluations of mixing techniques has been done and what little research that has, has been done on automatic mixing systems. When it comes to research on subgrouping in automatic mixing systems the results show a significant preference towards automatic mixes with subgroups over mixes without. This study aims to test the same notion that the use of subgroups improves listener preference but this time in mixes created by humans. A group of mix engineers created two mixes of one song, one with the use of subgroups and one without. These mixes were the stimuli of a listening experiment that was conducted to investigate listener preference of mixes with and without subgroups as well as what perceived qualities were most prevalent in preferred mixes and mixes with and without subgroups. The results showed that mixes without subgroups were preferred over mixes with subgroups, although, these results were not statistically significant. The results also showed that balance, frequency and clarity were the most prevalent sonic qualities that helped the listeners decide how to rank the mixes