This was the bane of my existence for like two years. According to Reaper, Cakewalk, and Harrison Mixbus, it's not possible. Akai support isn't even worth contacting. Useless & grossly incompetent. We go way back. FWIW, Akai said that it was a DAW setting, and each of those DAW's support said it had to be an MPC setting.
My workaround was to switch permanently to Reaper, and run both Softwares side by side in standalone (not the plugin, not to be confused with the new MPC standalone units). Then in MPC, select the "Rearoute" ASIO device, and set its properties to 32 channels. That part is good to go. Then I created a template in Reaper with 16 stereo tracks. Since I have a cultivated MPC project template, it was easy to select the appropriate Rearoute input on each channel in my Reaper template. Reaper actually (and it's unique in this) lets you run Rearoute ins all over the place, while simultaneously running your audio interface's ASIO driver for Reaper's output AND other inputs into your Reaper project. For instance, I got my decks hooked into my interface's inputs, for a dedicated channel for scratches in my beat template.
Mostly the same can be accomplished by any DAW with Jack audio, but holy shit is it convoluted to set up. Also, the instructions on their website are obsolete in several places and just plain don't work. I had to figure it out and it took days. Also, that's the only audio protocol said DAW can use. I never did figure out how to get any separate inputs to work. Their support forum, also, is full of assholes who offer zero help and just shit on you and tear you down for asking for help with their **** UP software instructions (I could go line-by-line.)
FWIW, Reaper is awesome. It has about 1/3 of the CPU usage of Cakewalk, which itself ain't bad. It does have a learning curve, but it has the most robust feature set on the market. It's also tiny and cheap.
As for transport, I've done it two ways. You can install Aka Internal Midi as a virtual MIDI cable (located in the Program Files (x86)/Akai folder, if memory serves), or use an actual MIDI cable from the MIDI out of the MPC hardware into you interface's MIDI input. Don't use MMC, though, as "overdub" on the MPC triggers "record" in Reaper, which creates a hot mess trying to bang out a pattern on the MPC. Or, just turn it on when you want to record your beat. One thing to note, Reaper buffers a split second, ruining the attack n your one beat, when you hit play on the MPC, when transport is controlled by regular MIDI. MTC users are used to this with a much longer sync-up time. Either way, you have to put at least 2 blank bars at project tempo at the beginning of your song when you record it. Me, I use MTC, but I right-click on Reaper's play button and disengage syncing to external timecode from that menu until recording time.
Side note, sorry to be windy, but the reason why I tried the cable is because at one point I wanted the MPC sequencer to trigger MIDI instruments in Reaper (with proper multi-out) instead of hosting them in MPC with one stereo output. I got a gang of drum instruments, and I must say, no way I tried (cable or virtual cable, standalone or plugin) was tight enough to blend sequenced drum samples in the MPC with drum plugins in any DAW. Flam city. Reaper lets me run my interface's latency extremely low. Even still, to get those vst drum instruments to lock tight with my drum samples I had to host them in MPC with its BS stereo out-per-track and just deal with it as best as I could in the mix. Which does suffer. I gave up on that method entirely after a week of suffering eight hours a day. It's ok for most instruments but not drums. The MIDI timing on modern MPCs is demonstrably garbage vs old units, which did this flawlessly. Even the Nukai joints.
Another advantage, besides count-in, is that the jog wheel controls tempo on-the-fly again. All this could be avoided if the MPC software had a competent mixer.
If you do keep your current DAW & go the Jack Audio route, add me on FB and I'll help. That goes for anyone. Shoot me a message. I don't check my messages here often enough. Good luck homie.
Grown Folks Music Lover 
