Ted Jensen at sterling sound has a solid reputation. Sterling sound did soooo many albums over the years. They did Quicksands 'slip' album which is somewhere along the lines of what you describe sonically, as live in the room, somewhat raw, and competitive.

Gateway mastering as a great analog mastering studio, which besides a brilliant chief engineer, analog expertise seperates them from many others. Worth considering sonically.

Those are two of the best mastering houses available in the US.

That's great I really appreciate the response!

I also found west west side music.

Has a pretty solid list of work on their site. I'll check the other two as well.

Cool man, let me know who you go with I'm interested in a big time mastering studio for some transfer work I've got.

It'd be great if you could post some stuff after too. With drop box we could hear the full fidelity before and afters. I've always wondered what the effect of great mastering was to a typical good recording.

You may want to check out peerless mastering in Boston. They did a great job on some of my bosses and co workers music, who are highly experienced and sucessful comcerially. Peerless has great studio acoustics and equipment. They know they're rock and roll.

Just figured I'd mention them since there a little more real world price but a true comercial mastering facility.