I have a project that I want to lower a half step for vocal purposes.  How do I lower the pitch of each instrument track without making them slower?  I was able lower pitch by using process/tranpose/transpose audio, but I found that the tracks got slowed down a bit. what did I do wrong?

If you don't have melodyne then you can do this:
 
1. Select the track to be processed
2. Select Process, Transpose
3. In the resulting Transpose dialog box click the [ ]Transpose Audio checkbox.
4. Choose an Algorithm and the Amount at the top.
5. Click OK (And wait.........)
 
It is fully undo able also.
 
If you have melodyne then I'd use that. Select all the blobs and drag up and down or select the amount of change.

The point of the transpose audio process is to shift pitch without changing speed. Exactly how much does the audio slow down? Slowing is relative to what (a stopwatch, the SONAR timeline, another track)?