Is there a way to adjust a track (or a section of one) such that no note attacks are below a certain velocity (i.e. the volume at which they sound)? Or to set it such that all note attacks are the same velocity. I have Sonar 7 Studio Edition. 
 
I have to press quite hard on my keyboards to avoid having to go back and right-click numerous individual notes in the track to juice up their individual sound level. 

There are several ways to adjust the velocity of midi notes, but this won't just affect the transient, it will apply for the entire note (subject to the natural decay of the patch)
 
I'm sorry I'm not at my DAW at the moment, but I think you need to look in the Edit menu where you'll find Select by Filter. Start by unchecking everything, then just check notes, then apply the minimum & maximum values.
this will then only select those notes falling within your particular criteria
 
From there you can set them all to a given value in the Event Inspector

Thanks for the fast reply! I found the Event Inspector and can easily set all notes to the same duration with it and Ctrl-A to select all -- what a gas! I take it that is the only issue you're dealing with above, and Edit - Select - by Filter is purely for selecting notes you want to adjust?
 
Anybody know how to set a minimum velocity for all notes in an existing track? 
 

You can open the piano roll view and draw the velocity controller. Or under Process there is Scale Velocity. Both are shown here:

 
As to adjusting the velocity for playing I found the Gain in the console strip works.
 

 
I'm sure there are other ways as well.

Just for the record:
Do not mix velocity with volume. They are (mostly) two different things. Using a soft synth with velocity layered samples, velocity defines which of them is triggered. Using volume, you can make the most silent snare scratch
louder than the full power hit.
 
There may be an option to adjust the velocity curve of your keyboard. That may help you to get more consistent levels right from the start.

Referring to the first picture by DrLumen, you can use this technique in conjunction with the Edit > Select by Filter function in order to have only those notes falling below your threshold highlighted so only those notes can be dragged upwards/downwards.
 
Or you can use Scale Velocity again on your restricted selection
 
Or.... you can select the desired notes as described, then in Track View, right click the clip containing the notes and choose Process Effect > Midi Effects > Cakewalk Fx > Velocity. This will open up the plugin's gui where you can do all sorts of things with velocity - it's a very powerful tool but it is also a destructive process meaning once you save your project without hitting undo, you'll lose the original velocities.
 
Also, you might find the Velocity plugin is mapped to Uncategorized instead of Cakewalk Fx as  outlined above.

There are many ways to skin this cat:
 
Edit > Find/Replace uses the same dialog as Select by Filter to define both the selection and how to change it in one operation.
 
Start by selecting the whole clip so that the Find filter has something to work on; then you have basically two options:
 
1. Set Velocity Max in the Find dialog to the minimum that you intend to set (leaving Min at 0), so that only the low-velocity notes are selected. Then set the Velocity Min/Max in the Replace dialog to the desired minimum value to set all select notes to the fixed minimum. (You could also accomplish this using Select by Filter and then Event Inspector.
 
2. If you want more of a proportional 'compression' of all velocities toward the high end, set the Find range to encompass the lowest and highest values present (but not a lot more, or you'll get too much compression), and set the Replace values to your desired Min and Max.
 
Or you can look into using azslow3's MIDI Compression MFX:
 
     http://www.azslow.com/index.php/topic,275.0.html
 
See this post for more info:
 
     http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/3437457
 
Keith Albright also posted earlier in the same thread about using Scale Velocities to achieve this.

"adjust a track (or a section of one) such that no note attacks are below a certain velocity" -- that's really all I'm after here, folks. Can't find the velocity controller or figure out Scale Velocity. DrLumen's Console view doesn't resemble mine.  
 
I'm reading "To edit velocity" in the program's Help. It gives 5 incomprehensible steps e.g. "2. Make sure Velocity has a checkmark next to it in the Show/Hide MIDI Events menu." No doubt the latter is in there somewhere, but it doesn't respond to any of my searches.
 
Thank you ALL for your ongoing input. There has to be a very simple answer somewhere -- I feel it in my bones.
 
 

brundlefly
 
1. Set Velocity Max in the Find dialog to the minimum that you intend to set (leaving Min at 0), so that only the low-velocity notes are selected. Then set the Velocity Min/Max in the Replace dialog to the desired minimum value to set all select notes to the fixed minimum. (You could also accomplish this using Select by Filter and then Event Inspector.

Where are those dialogs, please?

OK, to be more precise:
1. Select clip or part of clip.
2. Choose Process > Find/Change in the main menu.
3. In the first dialog, enter (for example) 60 as the Max for Velocity, and OK.
4. In the second dialog, enter 60 as both the Min and Max for Velocity, and OK.
 
All notes with a velocity at or below 60 will be set to 60.