You could record the stereo output of an emulator, but you would be stuck with the original tempo, the original instrumentation (usually limited to 8-bit or 16-bit timbres), and any emulation noise. By converting VGM to MIDI, you decouple the notes from the sound . You keep the genius of the composition but gain the freedom to use modern sample libraries, synthesizers, and effects.
Old consoles used fast arpeggio tricks to simulate chords on limited channels (e.g., one PSG channel playing C-E-G rapidly). A converter outputs this as a stream of individual notes, which may confuse notation software. Vgm Midi Converter
Foobar2000 is an audio player, but with the "VGM Stream" plugin and "MIDI Mapper", it can play VGM files and export the MIDI data to a virtual port for recording into a DAW. This is a "real-time" conversion method, useful for capturing the exact timing of a specific emulator core. You could record the stereo output of an
Because VGM files are instruction sets rather than audio, they are incredibly small—often 50KB for a 3-minute song. However, they are tied to specific hardware emulation. Old consoles used fast arpeggio tricks to simulate
To understand the struggle, you have to understand the hardware. In the late 80s and early 90s, storage space was expensive. You couldn't fit high-quality audio on a cartridge. Instead, programmers wrote code that told a sound chip—like the Yamaha YM2612 in the Genesis—to "play frequency X at volume Y for duration Z."