Well, in Cubase, I simply click Solo, click export and voila...it's rendered along with all automation and all FX automation. Why bother doing it offline when it only takes the length of time for your part to play to render it? I mute the channel it's recorded from to save CPU and it's instantly recallable by TWO clicks (unmute and unbypass FX!) if I don't like my rendered section. That's one of the many wonderful things I like with SX...you solo a channel and all of the FX channels that are associated with it remain open - it's not tedious at all. In fact I've had SX for maybe 4 months now and I've not used freeze one single time yet - I simply don't need it. It saves so little time over normal rendering, I even wonder what all the clamour over freezing was about when it was introduced. Rendering is not tedious at all to me.It's not that simple... in Cubase, Nuendo, Pro Tools etc you can apply effects off-line to a piece of audio, but that's not the same as freezing a track with effects. For a start, it doesn't incorporate any automation you might have on those effects.
I can see some point in the offline stuff. But in this scenario he's probably talknig about one channel that maybe plays for what?...20 seconds, 30 seconds - even a minute. If someone can't wait one minute for a render when they're concerned about CPU useage, then they've got Attention Deficit Disorder.