I was creating a new project last night and I noticed on the faders for the tracks the pan adjustment above the volume fader says “OFF”. I would think it would be “C” (Centered). I looked up panning in my Cubase book and it does not state what “OFF” means (however the picture in the book does show “OFF”).
What you’re seeing are MIDI tracks. MIDI tracks (as opposed to audio tracks, or instrument tracks or channels) default to a pan “OFF” setting. This means they are not transmitting any PAN control changes to the software or hardware instrument they are set to control. It doesn’t mean that the pan is “off” at the instrument per se, it just means that the MIDI track is not telling the instrument to do anything with pan other than what the INSTRUMENT is set to do.
Same goes for the level control. You’ll notice that the MIDI level control also defaults to “OFF”, meaning that it is not sending any volume control changes to the instrument. If you change the pan or the level on the midi channel, you will then be controlling the pan and level controls at the instrument itself (on the selected MIDI channel)–since of course, the MIDI track does not make any sound of it’s own. 
The MIDI channel is just a way to control the instrument it’s connected to.
Thank you so much for the GREAT explanation. It is really appreciated!
My pleasure.