In previous versions of Sonar, if I didn't have any notes selected, all of the note velocities would be visible/editable at the bottom. If I then selected one or more notes, only those notes' velocities would be visible/editable.
 
In Sonar Premium, it seems we have 2 options:

1) If Show Velocity on Selected Notes only is ticked, then the only way to see velocities is to select notes; if you don't have any notes selected, then NO velocities will appear.
2) If Show Velocity on Selected Notes only is NOT ticked, then all notes' velocities are always visible at the bottom, but only selected notes have editable velocities.  There is no way to show only a subset of notes' velocities.
 
Is there any way to get the behavior back to how it used to be?  So, if no notes are selected, we can see and edit ANY velocities, and if some notes are selected, we can only see and edit those notes' velocities?

With no notes selected you can easily edit individual velocities in the Controller Pane, just click & drag, or even do a sweep across a range of velocities.

As BJ said if no notes are selected all velocities are editable. If notes are selected it is easy to see which velocity bars are theirs as they are a darker colour, and only those are editable.

Is there a way to make the color of the uneditable velocities much lighter, to make them stand out better against the darker, editable velocities?
 
(I am editing on the fly so need the velocity pane to be as uncluttered as possible)

How does Sonar know which notes are editable and which ones aren't?
 
All notes are editable at any time surely?

Tripecac
Is there a way to make the color of the uneditable velocities much lighter, to make them stand out better against the darker, editable velocities?
 
(I am editing on the fly so need the velocity pane to be as uncluttered as possible)

No idea sorry - I have never needed to change the colours. If you can, it is most likely under preferences>customisation>colours
https://www.cakewalk.com/Documentation?product=SONAR%20X2&language=3&help=Dialogs2.074.html
 
Obviously the way to have it least cluttered is to select  'show velocities  on selected notes only' that you mentioned in your first post.
 

Bristol_Jonesey
How does Sonar know which notes are editable and which ones aren't?
 
All notes are editable at any time surely?

Op means the colour of the velocity bars of un-selected notes in PRV after a selection is made, which are not editable as they are not selected.

On my end the selected notes are always much darker, bordering on black, so fairly easy to pick out.   But in the controller pane it doesn't matter since the un-selected notes won't be affected anyway.    I think?

That's my understanding Steve, without any further clarification from the OP

On my monitor the colors of editable vs non-editable velocities are pretty close.  Since I'm editing on the fly, I would prefer greater contrast, so that the velocities of the notes I've selected are significantly darker than the non-editable velocities.
I do not want to turn on the Show Velocity on Selected Notes only option, because if I have no notes selected, I want *all* of the notes' velocities to be visible and editable, like they were on the older versions of Sonar.  I do not want to have to try to lasso all notes in a track or ctrl-A each time I want to view all the notes' velocities.
 
In other words, the previous versions of Sonar had a velocity display system which worked well for me.  If I wanted to see all the velocities in a track, I didn't select any notes.  If I only wanted to focus on a subset of notes, I'd select those notes.  That made sense.
 
The new system isn't as convenient.  Honestly, I think they forgot to put in logic to show all velocities if no notes are selected.  Otherwise, why would they deliberately show NO velocities when no notes are selected?  How does showing NOTHING help anyone?  It would be much better to show EVERYTHING when there is not an active selection.  It's not like the velocity pane clutters up anything else.
 
I really think they forgot to finish re-implementing the feature.  As far as I am concerned, it's a bug.  Because otherwise it would be a design decision, and why in the world would they deliberately show NOTHING?

Tripecac
On my monitor the colors of editable vs non-editable velocities are pretty close.  Since I'm editing on the fly, I would prefer greater contrast, so that the velocities of the notes I've selected are significantly darker than the non-editable velocities.
I do not want to turn on the Show Velocity on Selected Notes only option, because if I have no notes selected, I want *all* of the notes' velocities to be visible and editable, like they were on the older versions of Sonar.  I do not want to have to try to lasso all notes in a track or ctrl-A each time I want to view all the notes' velocities.
 
In other words, the previous versions of Sonar had a velocity display system which worked well for me.  If I wanted to see all the velocities in a track, I didn't select any notes.  If I only wanted to focus on a subset of notes, I'd select those notes.  That made sense.
 
The new system isn't as convenient.  Honestly, I think they forgot to put in logic to show all velocities if no notes are selected.  Otherwise, why would they deliberately show NO velocities when no notes are selected?  How does showing NOTHING help anyone?  It would be much better to show EVERYTHING when there is not an active selection.  It's not like the velocity pane clutters up anything else.
 
I really think they forgot to finish re-implementing the feature.  As far as I am concerned, it's a bug.  Because otherwise it would be a design decision, and why in the world would they deliberately show NOTHING?

I'm having a hard time visualizing what you're describing...   Like you I prefer to see all velocities so I can better gauge whether the edits need to be compared to their surroundings.  But the difference between selected/non-selected is always fairly visible to me, so while dragging across the Controller Pane only those darker velocity bars are affected but I can see them in relation to the non-selected notes/velocity bars.   
 
I wonder if you're using darker colored notes to begin with that may provide less contrast between selected/non-selected events?  How about velocity bar width?   Just thinking out loud...