7

Chapter 5 The Environment 163
If the box is not checked, the Object will not appear in the Instrument List, and a
diagonal line through the icon is shown. This will not hide the Object or its icon in the
Environment.
You should only check the icon box if the Object will be used as a track instrument, or
you need to connect cables to its outputs by using the instrument selection menu.
Color
You can change the color of an Object via the View > Colors local menu, which opens a
palette of various colors. A double-click on a color field opens the system color palette,
allowing you create customized colors. These color edits are stored in the Preferences
file, and are available for all songs. The color of an Environment Object is used as the
default color for any newly created Region in the Arrange window.
Standard Instrument
This is the simplest track playback Object. It provides a direct connection to a single
MIDI port and channel, which can be set in its Parameter box.
You can also set a number of other playback parameters, including program bank and
number, initial volume and pan, transpose, velocity scaling, and MIDI delay.
To create a new standard instrument, select New > Instrument, or click on the layer
background with the pencil tool. Instruments serve as the interface between Logic’s
tracks and your MIDI sound sources.
The Standard Instrument Object Parameter box will be familiar to you from the Arrange
window. Here are the details of the individual parameters.
Channel
Use the Channel parameter to set the MIDI channel for the instrument’s output. All
events at the output of the standard instrument Object are sent via the channel set
here. Exception: If you set this parameter to All, all events will be sent with their
original channel settings—as they appear in the Event List window.
Port
Below the channel parameter, a direct connection to one of the MIDI output ports can
be set. Remember that you can also directly cable the standard instrument Object to
other Environment Objects for MIDI processing. If no MIDI output port is defined in the
Object Parameter box for the instrument, the Port parameter will display “off”.