Yep as long as its caclum carbonate base rock. Whats really to consider?
Live rock around here costs $6.00 per pound.
Base rock is about $1.00 per pound.
Now lets see, you can buy 50 pounds live for $300 bucks
or
You can buy 50 pounds of baserock for $50 bucks.
That doens't seem like a hard choice for me.
If its a matter of adding some life to the sand or rocks you can always find someone who will be willing to get you a cup of sand with worms and pods. If you already have some live rock then perhaps you already have worms and pods.
It just takes paitients for it to become live with bacteria, not long really, but its another thing for it to become live with coralline algea.
Thomas