Yes, that’s actually how I do it right now, but part of the problem, a smaller one, is that I always try to simplify things to save both processor and time. But what really became an issue in this very project was that I’ve used up an awful lot of processing on other buses already that can’t get frozen down, which of course is totally okay as, well, they are buses and what has to be done just simply has to be done. For example, six different mono-rain-files will simply work better collectively processed instead of each one having their own processing. But I also have several tracks here (it’s a surreal scene from a movie I once did that I’will use as a showreel) that are absolutely blasted with both analogue and plugin effects, and not being able to freeze them down means I have to spend a lot of energy on optimizing everything else instead, which can be pretty frustrating.
This do however also lead to the related thing I brought up - I would really really love a more flexible routing-system, where I can snuff off channels as I please where I please (in th chain, that is), or rout them to bypass freely, like if I wanna use two different effects on Left and Right without the two affecting each other, just bypassing the channel not wanted for each effect. Working mainly as a sound designer, there’d be soooo much mayhem I’d be able to do using something like that, and the ability to rout a single channel in a multi-channel setup to several simultaneous destinations, not even necessarily the same one at all 