or do I need a multi-core processor ?

I had a Presonus Firepod, Native Instruments, and BB running on my core-i7....and it recently died...wondering if running these 3 at the same time really uses all the cores, or if I could save some money with a core i3 build.

Anybody have any experience running these or similar programs on an i3 ? Did it hiccup ?

As always, thanks in advance.